Enclosures are commonly used to provide a degree of protection to personnel against incidental contact with enclosed equipment and to provide a degree of protection against the surrounding environment for enclosed equipment. Typical enclosures include a box, a hinged door sealed to the box when in a closed position, and mounting pieces for supporting the enclosed equipment at selected positions within the box. Frequent access to the components within such enclosures is common for adjustments, maintenance, and inspection of the components. Components within the enclosure may also be changed or replaced as the demand therefor changes. Typically, the components are fastened to a panel inside the enclosure. Panels and components must typically be dismounted from the interior of the enclosure and replaced by other components. Further, enclosures are often used to house many different electronic and/or electric components and their associated wiring and control circuitry. These components, their associated wiring, and the panels all come in varying shapes and sizes. Still further, the components must be fastened in place and often several different components must be mounted rigidly in the same housing and/or in a fixed spatial relationship. Therefore flexibility in component placement is important.
Oftentimes, the total production run of any one particular combination of components is somewhat limited and the cost of producing a custom enclosure is not economically justified. In such instances, enclosures having an ability to be adapted to different component mounting arrangements are used. Similarly, when performing field installation of various electrical wiring and control systems, it is often necessary to install many different combinations of components. In order to maintain the number of different enclosures required to a reasonable level, it is desirable to have enclosures which are extremely flexible in that they are able to accommodate a wide variety of components and mounting arrangements.
Some enclosures include means to accommodate multiple components and mounting arrangements yet suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example and as shown in FIG. 1, an enclosure 1 in the shape of a box 10 may include one or more fixed tracks 12 which extend from the bottom 14 to the top 16 of the enclosure 1. Mounting brackets (not shown) which hold electrical components or the like may be slid inwardly and outwardly relative to the box along the track 12 until a desired position is attained. A tool may then be inserted through a front face of the enclosure to access one or more fasteners positioned at right angles to the side walls of the enclosure 1 and which, when tightened, engage the side wall to secure the bracket to the track. The one or more tracks 12, however, when not used or otherwise needed in some applications add unnecessary cost and weight to the enclosure 1. In these situations the one or more tracks 12 also consume space in the box 10 that otherwise could be used to accommodate additional multiple components and/or enable further diverse mounting arrangements. It would therefore be useful for the one or more tracks 12 to be removable from the box as may be necessary or desired in the field during use of the enclosure.
Another undesirable aspect of such mounting structure is that the mounting brackets (not shown) which hold electrical components or the like and that may be slid to and fro along the track 12 until a desired position is attained are typically held in place relative to the bottom 14 of the box 10 by a threaded insert 18 disposed at the bottom 14 and formed integrally with the box 10 during manufacture thereof. The one or more threaded inserts 18, however, also add cost and weight to the enclosure 1. It would therefore be desirable to provide a system that can be used for mounting various components within the box that does not need or otherwise require the one or more threaded inserts 18 disposed at the bottom 14 and formed integrally with the box 10 during manufacture.